Polo

[LadyB]

Hiya Everyone!!

sorry i havent posted for ages....

Had my very first polo lesson on Sat and it was amazing!!!! Very hard but great fun. I would love to carry on playing the sport. anyone else on here play?

call me mad but...

i was thinking about training my 7 yr old, 14.3 arab to play. she doesnt neck rein at the mo but hoping to teach her. She is a very quick learner. she is very sharp, fast and quick off the mark which makes me think she would be fantastic at it. has anyone else had experience in teaching a older pony to play polo? Or anyone know of any books/websites etc that could help me out?

ta

Lou

 

[hellyt1]

cool, polo is something i'd love to try some time.
if your horse is responsive to your weight aids, it should be fairly easy to teach her to neck rein i would think.

 

[GTs]

I play, and would not recommend teaching your arab to play for a couple reasons:

You are a beginner, you struggle hitting the ball on a horse that knows what it is doing - how would you manage on a horse who has no idea what it is doing. And this is just sticking and balling - how will you build a horse confidence in chukkars.

Arabs are not made for polo, you will more then likely break it. They have little delicate bits that are not designed to stop, and turn like we do in polo. Even if you do not break your horse, when you start playing polo, your horse will not be able to keep up with the others - just built differently so it will suck either way.

If you want to play polo either buy new horses, or you can rent for the time being.

 

[Ginn]

What about a fiety young tb GTs - She has no fear, can move faster than anything else on 4 legs and can stop and turn in an instant!

 

[GTs]

Pay someone to train her, and then sell her for a lot of money the buy 4 beginner horses with that.

 

[_jetset_]

I had more than ten lessons a couple of summer and could have become totally hooked had my finances not dicatated otherwise! I loved how well trained the ponies were and where I was learning you played games quite early.

Where have you been for your lesson?

 

[GTs]

Yeah we do not let our horses get away with anything - it does make them so much nicer to be around.

I do not take lessons per say, just play chukkars, either at a club, or just someones house.

 

[_jetset_]

How lucky are you! I would love to know someone who owns their own polo yard!

 

[GTs]

It is not that uncommon - some of them are really nice - on the beach type of things.

 

[_jetset_]

They are quite uncommon over here, especially up north! Strangely though, I did meet someone two weeks ago at a BBQ but was too drunk to have a sensible conversation with him... bugger!

 

[LadyB]

Hiya

Thanks for all your views. I was going to have allot more lessons at polo first before thinking of teaching her....

but i really appreciate what you are saying. i just thought it might be another thing for us to do together to make life a bit more interesting... Dont think i will tho. i could maybe just try and teach her neck reining, see how she goes then take it from there...

Lou xx

 

[dieseldog]

Have thought about Polocrosse? A cheaper option to Polo and played by amateurs. Is also quite addictive. You can play on your horse as well. If you found a local team they would help train your horse with you.

 

[GTs]

Polocrosse? BLAH.......... Poor mans polo..... You only need one horse, it is slow, etc.